Why human?

[Zenako]

Dunno About That I Only Have 1 Human, A 16 Paladin, Who Has 411 Hps, I Know Human Tanks Out There With 500+, /Shrug, Still I See Your Point.

And don't forget how much healing gets handled via Scrolls by many clerics (HEAL and MASS CUREs) and those scrolls clearly do not hit for 300+ points a pop. Getting a 30% boost on the effectiveness on those effects adds up.

[Thorboar]

I play a human because my main is based on my character I played in pnp years ago. He is a strength based pure ranger which I enjoy playing in the game. He may not have the uber HP's (his is 348) like dorfs but he can put out some serious DPS. I have him spec'ed out with dual khopesh's, improved slash crit, power attack, and of course tempest. So the extra feat helps.

I do use the human versatility +5 clicky for attacks, damage, or AC which is a nice boost. The +5 for attacks is nice to offset the power attack -5 to hit.

And I have not used the 2 human adaptibility enhancements yet. Its because It would increase an ability to an odd number which would be useless. Once I get +2 or +3 tomes then I could respec and use the enhancement to bump an ability up.

[knightgf]

Well, if you think about it, we, the players, are humans. Is it not natural to play as our own race in a game such as this?

Besides, humans are neutral characters that can blend in to any class. They're not like the other races, where they have +x, -x stats, and plus, the added advantage is that we can pick an extra feat when we start. I have never really stuck with making any other character besides human, because its pretty much a natural class, and you can start with 1 extra feat.

[SynfoolaCMT]

After finally rolling/playing some human toons, I have to say the greatest strength that comes with rolling a human is added versatility for versatility-starved builds/pure builds.

My Pure Pally for example:

- Extra Feat to throw into Toughness so I can still take Power Attack and blaze through lower levs with a decent GA/Carniflex while benefitting from both Human Racial Toughness & Paladin Toughness enhancements so I'm not pumping every last stat drop into Con.

- Extra Skill Points so the half-points I get for freaking Intimidate not being a class skill don't hurt so much.

- Least Dragonmark: Sentinel for another bonus to Intimidate to soak up the annoyance mentioned above as well as Shield of Faith x 3. That saves me trips to the Apothecary as well as the Jorasco buffer and the bonuses/duration get better with levels.

- Human Versatility let's me be stingy with Enhancement Points and only use the Saves Bonus when I need it to save against caster mezzes, the AC Bonus, or the Attack Bonus in low levs to make up for the Power Attack penalty. It becomes less useful as I progress in levs but is still nice to have.

- No negatives to worry about. I didn't think this was that great of a quality until rolling something like a Pally due to too many stat requirements.

- Human Adaptability is great to have for a Pally since it's so stat hungry for a variety of things. Even with a bookshelf of +1 Tomes, I was still worried about how this build would turn out later but, along with the fact that Humans don't have stat penalties, the +1 to 2 Stats really eases up a build that could use the break from stat drama...especially with the new enhancements coming and their requirements.


Thanks to all of that (and of course decent gear), I now have a pure Pally at lev 9 that can reach 51 AC with pots/self-buffs for tanking when it's needed as well as swing a Great Axe and Divine Sac/Smite Crit in the 260's+ range and LoH 3 times for 120 health. All with over 200 health after Virtue with only a +2 Con item and no False Life item on. Not to mention the usual goodies of Cure/Restore Wand whipping, Remove Disease, being able to Turn UD Altar-Nuke in Xorian Cipher (about the only place where Turning doesn't seem horribly broken) and being able to fight mummies with just some Remove Curse pots due Disease Immunity and NOT having to wear a Reaver's Ring because I'm Immune to Fear. She's probably not "Teh Ubar" and will still fall behind other builds for this and/or that later on due to the nature of the game currently, but she's still making a difference in PuG's with her versatility...versatility which I believe would have been less attainable had I chose another race for her with the playstyle I wanted.


So, I guess you could just take this example and say, "OK....Humans good for pure Pallies who want to be versatile, but normally would have problems due to stat limitations" or you could just apply that opinion to other classes.

[Wizzly_Bear]

[snip]

necromancer

but yes, humans are great for versatility. others are great for specializing.

[SynfoolaCMT]

I couldn't help it! I was bored and it's cold outside! :O

[Noctus]

The new design of the Thoughness enhancements really made the gap between Humans and the short&hairy melee über-Race a bit less pronounced.

[minivanman]

And don't forget how much healing gets handled via Scrolls by many clerics (HEAL and MASS CUREs) and those scrolls clearly do not hit for 300+ points a pop. Getting a 30% boost on the effectiveness on those effects adds up.

This also carries over to potions and wands. Yeah, they're a last resort, but generally when you're at the point of last resort, the extra help is very useful.

I like humans, but don't play humans exclusively. My fighter tank can get to 500 hp, has an intimidate of 65 (with the HV boost), and an AC in the 60's. He's weakish on DPS, but he's not really built for that. However, for 20 seconds, that extra +5 from HV makes him superior in that capacity than any other race (except the DPS). Yeah, it's only 20 seconds, but that's why it's called versatility. The extra feat is what's going to qualify him for Kensai, while also being an exceptional intimidator, and also keep things like Shield Mastery and Improved Shield Mastery.

Yeah, human fighters can be very good. You just have to be okay with not being the best at one thing, except intimidate. Nothing can irritate the Hound more than a fully spec'd human intimidator.

[QuantumFX]

The new design of the Thoughness enhancements really made the gap between Humans and the short&hairy melee über-Race a bit less pronounced.

Moreso with humans but it shortened the gap for everyone. Racial Toughness I/II makes up for the cost prohibitiveness of <melee class> Toughness IV. (If you spent your action points wisely you could have the same # of HP from mod 7 to 8 and save yourself 1AP.) And Improved Recovery is worth not having Toughness IV.

[nbhs275]

In PnP, I play basically nothing but humans. Occasionally I'll roll some odd +1 ECL critter, but pretty much, it's humans.

In DDO, I only have one human, and that's just because I didn't want another dwarf.

Is there a niche for humans in DDO? My first sorc was human, but Drow and WF really make so much better choices. I find that I have far too many elves, for the rapier bonuses, and dwarves, for the dwarven toughness.

I think the main problem is that DDO just doesn't have enough gotta take 'em feats yet, so that bonus feat ends up being excess baggage most of the time. So where do humans really shine? A pure class barb might benefit from the extra feat, and +1 skill is basically a free +2 int, but either my skills are int based (rogue), I need 13 int anyway (ce), or skills aren't that important.

I really like the human versatility enhancements, but I'm not good with remembering to use them when I need 'em.

For sorcerers, you can get the same cha, 3 more con, and +30% healing. When you get 150-70% healing and have 300+ hp on a sorcerer, your in busness. Heal scrolls for 187 is just a nice thing.

And by the same token, they make great monks, with 200% healing, they can keep themselves topped off with just healing curse many times.

[Corvid7]

Don't forget about the Mark of Making!